They were uttered when the great importance of the question as to the capacity of the Constitution to extend its operation proprio vigore as it now presents itself could not have been foreseen. and when the subject did not receive the deliberate consideration which at. this time would be given it by the great men who were members of the Supreme Court when those expressions were used. Satisfied that the Supreme Court will be slow to enter on the work of impairing the discretion intended to be secured to Congress by the treaty of Paris. and thatthereis no reasonable ground for fearing that it will decide. either that the citizenship of the Filipinos must La recognized on the one hand or the exercise of Federal jurisdiction over them and the countries they inhabit abandoned on the other. I insist that we may legislate for Puerto Rico and its people in the broadest spirit of justice and generosity without endangering our authority to solve the Asiatic problem on lines consistent with the best interests of the United States and of the Philippines. and on principles that will secure to the people of those islands political autonomy whenever they may demonstrate their capacity and disposition to preserve domestic order and to perform the international obligations that must be assumed when they become an independent State. We can not forget that with the cession of Puerto Rico she lost the principal markets she had long enjoyed. that our tariff laws have been systematically applied to her products. and that the markets of Spain and Cuba. which were once open to her. can only be reached now by the payment of Spanish and Cuban duties. She has lost free intercourse with Spain and Cuba. and it is now proposed to deny her free intercourse with the people of the United States.